They would enter through them and slide down onto a Feeder’s bed. Light. Gentle. Delicate as a flower petal landing on water. Then, without the Feeder’s knowledge, the nightwalker would drink their blood. But because they drained blood faster when feeding directly, a rumour spread that Serun changed the rules. Instead of nightwalkers entering Feeding Grounds, they waited for the next shipment of stored blood to arrive in the Undercity.
Now, nightwalkers were only allowed entry to the private room.
I turn down a bend and reach the busted light above Jax’s vent. Curling my fingers around the metal grate, I move to lift it but freeze as the yellow light ahead suddenly flickers.
Why is it swinging?
Behind the pendulum of light, red eyes watch me from the darkness.Fuck.
Squeezing the metal tight, I close my eyes. An icy touch grazes my cheek and swipes under my eye. With asharp breath, I screw my eyes shut tighter and fill my mind.The only monster crawling around in here is me. The only monster crawling around in here is me. The only fucking monster crawling around in here is me!
Sucking in a breath, I slowly open my eyes to find the darkness gone, the bulb no longer swaying, and no red eyes looking back at me.
It wasn’t real. I’m simply haunted by the fear of what I look like in the mirror.
Or what Iwouldlook like if I shattered the glamour my mum taught me as a child.
I slide down through the vent, and as soon as my feet sink into the thin mattress below, the springs groaning in protest, hands make their way up my thighs. Heat presses against me, pulling me down until I’m straddling Jax.
“Hey, babe.”
“Don’t,” I whisper. “I’m not your babe.”
With a roll of his eyes, he says, “Saya, then.”
“Better.”
With a crooked smile, his lips brush against my collarbone, trailing sensual kisses lower, finding my nipple through the fabric of my white nightgown. My breath hitches at the way he palms one breast while sucking hard on the other, his tongue laving one of my nipple piercings through my thin nightgown. The wet fabric sticks to my flesh, exposing my areola.
“Jax,” I say, my breath strained as my fingers weave through his brown hair, teasing the strands. A spark of pain shudders through me when he bites down and tugs back with my nipple caught between his teeth. He looksup at me and releases his hold with a smirk, the pleasure and pain making my core ache.
“Did anyone catch you this time?” he asks, his palms pressing against the sides of my breasts. He fondles them while keeping his eyes locked on mine.
“Just Manni again.” I lean back, kick my leg off him, and lie down. Jax moves over me, pressing his thigh between my legs and bracing his arms on either side of my head, bringing his face close to mine.
Jax has that “boy next door” look, as Emily once described it. Sky-blue eyes I can easily get lost in, muscles in all the right places and unmarked by scars. When he shaves, he appears younger, though he is growing the stubble out now.
We’ve been doing this for a while. No label in case one of us is sent to the private room. Still, he likes to push the idea whenever he can.
He plants a peck on the corner of my mouth, and his stubble tickles. Delightful scrapes brush over my skin as he kisses me.
“Jax,” I say, my breath quickening. It’s the only word that comes to mind as his lips travel lower. He lifts my gown and kisses my navel. A deep chuckle comes from him as I squirm, my legs restless beneath him.
His tongue flicks around my navel and then down. My breaths sharpen as his fingers curl around the waistband of my knickers. I lift my hips, helping him remove them by kicking one leg free of the fabric after he lowers them to my ankles.
A cold breeze brushes against my pussy as he parts mylegs like Mother parted Kepler—splitting the dry land of our world until water rushed through it like river streams. Warmth envelopes my entrance, and I inhale sharply, my hands grasping at the sheets when he kisses my inner thigh. “I could stay down here all night if we had the time,” he murmurs as he wraps his arms around my legs and lifts my hips. “Look at this pretty little cunt.”
“Jax, enough with the—” My words catch in my throat as his tongue glides up my slit to settle on my clit. He likes it there. He lingers, swirling around the bundle of nerves while I twitch helplessly beneath him.
Our relief. That’s what we call it. We sink out of a fucked-up world full of nightwalkers and into each other.
His tongue flicks from side to side, light and quick. I let out a moan, and my fingers grip the sheets.
Jax snags the pillow under my head and tosses it over my face to muffle the sound. My teeth sink into the fabric, and it tastes of cotton and dust.
His tongue is trouble, but so are his fingers when they work in unison. His mouth is over my clit, and he slides two fingers inside me. “Saya…you’re fucking excited to see me.”
I knee him playfully in the side of the head to hush him up.
